13 March 2015

FUN WITH DYLON DYES

If you already follow my blog you will already know that I love doing fun things - especially if it means spending time with my son.

At the moment fitting things in is really hard though - I work 10 to 12 hours a day, and then take my son rugby training twice a week, plus he has swimming lessons on a Saturday, and then rugby games on a Sunday.

Yep - I know what you are thinking, when do I have time to even breath never mind time to blog!

Well my answer is that my "blogging time" is very limited but I think I've put out enough posts to keep my followers interested.
(or at least i hope I am doing...)

Before I even think about blogging, my son comes first whether that be watching wrestling together, of even wrestling each other, playing the XBox, watching TV, or even just chilling out reading.

If you read my post Father Son Bond (here) you will know that we are really close.

We, as a family, are always on the look out for cool things to do be that fun days out or fun activities to do at home.

So when I was approached and asked if I wanted to do something creative I was really intrigued and obviously wanted to know more.

Dyon describe themselves as "living in the colourful world"
They celebrate this fact more than most, having brought colour to the wardrobes, homes and lives of people the world over for more than 60 years.

In fact the history of this company is really cool - take a look at the full story (here)

What could I do with some dyes I hear you ask?

Well one thing I have never tried before is Tie-Dye.

And neither has my son so it seemed like a great thing to both have a go at.

When you think of Tie-Dye what does it make you think of?

Well for me it's definitely the 1960s and everything "Hippy".

But did you know traditional methods of Tie-Dye started in India and Africa in as early as the sixth century.

No?

Well, me neither...I just looked it up and thought I would throw it in there - a little bit of education for you.

Dylon asked what my favorite colours were.

I'm not really know for my bright colours and mostly wear black so I opted for a nice

Velvet Black

And also

Burlesque Red

Then my son had a bright idea - why not try make a cool, different Red Nose Day T-Shirt he said.

So we did - I explained to him that the top wouldn't be a bright red though but he didn't mind.

I asked him to find an old white top

He brought me this one down from his wardrobe and we were ready to go.

Like I said before, I've never done any Tie-Dying before so instead of reading up on how to do it, well, I just thought I would wing it.

We had a play with the top and came up with what we thought was right.

The next thing to do was read the directions on the Dyson dye package which seemed really simple.

Step 1 - wear rubber gloves.

Step 2 - mix dye powder in 500ml of warm water.

Step 3 - fill sink up with around 6 liters of warm water and stir in 250g of plain salt, and add the mixed dye.

Step 4 - Add what ever you are dyeing, making sure it has been washed and is still dam, then stir it for 15 minutes, and then every 10 minutes or so, for a full 45 minutes.

Then after 45 minutes it was ready for taking out.

I pulled the plug and let the dye drain - it seemed like a real waste of product really - I wish I would of had some more stuff ready to have a play about with close to hand.

Then I rinsed the excess dye out of the top with cold water

I let the top dry out as much as possible before hanging it on the close-horse so it could dry naturally.

My son was amazed - I don't think he has ever seen Tie-Dye done before and he definitely wanted to wear it for his school's Red Nose Day.

So that was the fun stuff all finished, now to get some serious things done.

We all have that item in the wardrobe that we haven't worn for a while because it's all faded, old looking and not at all attractive.

Yep - thought so.

Well I have a pair of old 501s which haven't been worn for years, so I decided to use them.

I followed the same process with the Velvet Black dye as with the first and then added in my old faded jeans

6 comments

I love the idea of freshening up some old and tired looking clothes with some new colour. I remember doing things like tie-dying when I was younger at school and always being so impressed at some of the patterns that you could achieve with just a rubber band and some coloured dye. The patterns tend to remind me of summer and give festival vibes so I might just have to try this out with a few of my old clothes lurking away in my wardrobe!

I love that tie died top. I actually have a couple of packets of Dylon dyes in the press over my washing machine since I moved into my house. I used one to fix some bleach stains on my brothers chinos, but I'm itching to customise some of my own clothes now.